Saturday, November 17, 2007

The Alpacas are here!

This afternoon Linda arrived with the alpacas, Kateri, Victoria and Snowstorm. It worked out great as J had just finished getting all the leaves out of one of the pastures so it was all set for the alpacas. I spent the last three days raking leaves (a chore I hate but did for the sake of getting the leaves out of the alpacas way). The alpacas loved the grass and immediately started eating.

Linda showed J how to trim the toe nails on Snowstorm. He will do Kateri and Victoria's toe nails on another day (after they have settled in more as they are pregnant and we don't want to put too much stress on them).

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of their arrival because my digital camera is not working. We also are trying not to put too much stress on the girls so we are keeping things low key. Pregnant females when under stress can reabsorb a pregnancy which we do not want to happen. We would get another breeding but being winter we do not want a cria born in the winter, so we would have to decide if we should hold off until spring which postpones having a cria significantly.

Kateri is due July 19thVictoria is due July 14th

July will be baby cria fever!

I am very excited that Linda brought the fleece from all three animals for me! I was thinking I would have to wait until the sheering in the spring before I would get any. Now to look into a mill to send it to so I can have some yarn.

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Oak Haven Alpacas, LLC, & Oak Haven Sheep, LLC

The Adventure of a Lifetime

Our farming adventure began with the purchase of 3 alpacas in the fall of 2007. This eventually grew to an alpaca farm that birthed 23 cria. While we averaged 20 alpacas on a farm at any given time, we hit a peek of over 30 alpacas. We were involved in every aspect of alpaca farming: from breeding decisions, birthing, to attending alpaca shows, and shearing our own alpacas along with making product from their luscious fiber (hand spinning yarn and knitting product). We participated in 24 alpaca shows, and became very involved in the alpaca community.

In 2013 we added hair sheep to our farm.

Throughout this process we continued to tweak and revise our business plan. Our business plan evolved over time, and in 2013 it became clear that our goal was to raise grass fed animals for human consumption. While the initial plan was for this to go along side of alpaca farming, we slowly came to the conclusion our adventure was going to take us somewhere else.

In 2013 we began to sell off our alpaca herd to begin our new adventure with grass fed sheep and cattle.

Our adventure is still unfolding, so please, join us in our adventure of a lifetime as our journey unfolds.